In order to better understand people’s views of the world, a researcher once placed two children, one a pessimist and the other an optimist, alone in separate rooms.

The pessimist was placed in a colorful room full of all kinds of imaginative toys…the optimist was put in a room filled with horse manure.

The first child played in the room for a little while, but soon came to the door asking to leave because the toys were boring and because they broke too easily.

Likewise, the young optimist soon came to the door…but rather than asking to leave, she asked for a shovel.

Of course, the researcher asked the child why she wanted a shovel.

She replied, “With all this manure around, I know that there must be a pony in here somewhere.”

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Sometimes in life we tend to focus on the little bad things that happen, instead of enjoying the good things.

It is easy to be happy when everything is going right and life seems perfect. We are all happy when drying is going our way. But when one little storm comes out way, all of that happiness vanishes and all we can think about is that one bad thing. What ever happened to the thing that made us happy a few minutes ago? Why have we forgotten about it?

In our lives, we tend to focus on that one tiny smudge on a clean, blank piece of paper and that one storm in a world of sunshine. We're human, it's what we do. But we need to learn to be more optimistic about our lives, learn to not ruin a good today by thinking about a bad yesterday. Just enjoy the good things that come your way. Thank the Lord your God who gave you those amazing things! But also thank him when things go wrong because you should know that the struggle is what makes you stronger, despite the ugliness of it all right then.

"Optimist: someone who figures that taking a step backward after taking a step forward is NOT A DISASTER. It's more like a cha cha."

"The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty." -Winston Churchill

We all know at least one person who is just happy about everything and doesn't seem to care when things don't to their way. You might cringe at what I'm about to say because sometimes when we're not in a very good mood, those kind of people seem so annoying, but we need to strive to be like them. Jesus didn't complain, Jesus didn't whine and cry when something when slightly wrong, or even REALLY wrong, because he knew that it was what God wanted to happen for him and in the end it would make him much stronger.

This week I challenge you to be the optimist in your group of friends or family. I will with you, and if your family is anything like mine—about 3/4 of our conversations are just complaining or arguing about something—it will be a little tough, but we can do it!

If we do this everyday, it will soon become a known behavior for us and we'll begin to see the brighter side of life.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” -Aristotle

▶Be the optimist◀

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Have a fantabulous day! God bless you!

•BPL